NASHVILLE — Auburn hopes to bolster its NCAA Tournament resume when it meets No. 25-ranked Tennessee in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament on Thursday afternoon.
The 12th-seeded Tigers (17-15) trailed by 10 points in the first half but rallied to beat 13th-seeded Mississippi State 79-61 in their tournament opener on Wednesday.
The Bulldogs’ 61 points were the fewest Auburn has allowed to an SEC opponent all year.
“I thought that was as good as our defense has played in a while,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said. “Seventy-one possessions, 61 points — that’s what it’s supposed to look like.”
The Tigers were determined not to let the Bulldogs standout Josh Hubbard — who scored 46 points in a 91-85 loss at Mississippi State on Feb. 18 — beat them. He was held to 22 points on 8-of-25 shooting from the field on Wednesday.
“I would say they were a lot more physical on and off the ball,” Hubbard said when asked about the difference in Auburn’s effort in the rematch.
Auburn has plenty of offensive firepower in Keyshawn Hall (averaging 20.2 points per game), Tahaad Pettiford (15.2), Kevin Overton (13.5) and KeShawn Murphy (10.8).
The Tigers were ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s “first team out,” falling short of the NCAA Tournament in his Bracketology as well as the latest Bracket Matrix, both updated on Tuesday evening.
The Volunteers (21-10) are an NCAA No. 5 seed in those same Bracketology and Bracket Matrix projections.
Tennessee, seeded fifth in the SEC tournament, hopes to return Nate Ament, absent the last two games with a right leg injury. He leads Tennessee in rebounds (6.4 per game) and ranks second in scoring (17.4) behind Ja’Kobi Gillespie (18.0).
“I do (expect him to play),” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after Saturday’s 86-82 home loss to then-No. 24 Vanderbilt to close the regular season. “And I’ve told you guys, Nate wants to play. Obviously, we’re going to listen to our doctors and play the long game with it, I guess, is what we would do. But again, Nate is a tough kid. And if it were up to him, there’s no doubt he would’ve played against South Carolina (on March 3); he would’ve played (against Vanderbilt).”
The Vols struggled offensively for much of Saturday’s loss as Gillespie, increasingly the focus of opposing defenses, averaged 12.5 points on 8-of-31 shooting (25.8%) from the field in the last two contests.
Ament was the go-to scorer when the Vols won eight of nine games from Jan. 24 to Feb. 21. The freshman forward scored at least 13 each contest during that stretch and had six games of 22 or more. He first got hurt in a Feb. 24 loss to Missouri.
Ament’s injury on Feb. 28 against Alabama opened the door for J.P. Estrella (10.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg this season) and Felix Okpara (7.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg) to make bigger contributions.
Estrella missed two games in February due to an injury but has played the last four, the last two being perhaps his best of the season. He scored 22 and pulled seven rebounds in a March 3 win over South Carolina and scored 20 with 10 rebounds in Saturday’s loss to Vanderbilt.
Okpara scored a season-high 20 points against South Carolina and blocked four shots and pulled 10 rebounds against Vanderbilt.
These are two of the country’s top offensive rebounding clubs, with Tennessee ranking first nationally (16.0 per game) and Auburn 17th (13.39).
Tennessee scored a 77-69 home win on Jan. 31 in the lone regular-season game with Auburn.
